It is 2.3 kilometres for Flemingdon Park residents, in the Don Mills and Overlea area, to their nearest supermarket. Many have to walk.

Barbara Lariviere, left, and Sheena Bray must travel out of their Flemingdon Park neighbourhood for fresh produce. (Dec. 17, 2009)

By:John SpearsCity Hall Bureau, Published on Mon Jan 18 2010

It is a hefty hike from Barbara Lariviere's townhouse in Flemingdon Park to the Food Basics supermarket in Thorncliffe Plaza.

She rounds the curve of Grenoble Dr., passes Gateway Public School and heads past the Flemingdon Food Bank on Gateway Blvd. Then it's across Don Mills Rd. and onto Overlea Blvd. Once past the two schools on the corner, she crosses the long, exposed span of the Overlea Bridge. Then a few blocks along Overlea to Food Basics.

The route is familiar to Lariviere, because Food Basics is her closest supermarket. By a car's odometer, it is 2.3 kilometres each way.

But Lariviere doesn't own a car, nor do many of her neighbours.

"To walk to Thorncliffe, it's a good half-hour," she says. "Maybe a little longer, coming back with a load."

Easy access to a food store is something that most people take for granted. But pockets of the city, especially low-income ones like Flemingdon, aren't well served.

It is more than an inconvenience. Lariviere, who suffers from degenerative discs and other bone problems, is not supposed to carry heavy loads. She often borrows a cart from the food bank if she's buying heavy items like potatoes and milk.

Mothers with young children face an equally daunting task shepherding their brood to and from the store with a load of groceries.

Flemingdon Park has been without a grocery store about two years, when a Food Basics closed in the local plaza, to the puzzlement of all.

"I like the area, I love the people. But they shouldn't be moving the big grocery store way over there."

"Over there" means the Food Basics in Thorncliffe. There's also a Superstore north of Eglinton Ave. E. or a variety of small shops in the plaza that carry limited quantities of food, little of it fresh produce.

The Shoppers Drug Mart that replaced the Food Basics, for example, sells dairy products, eggs and packaged groceries but its fresh vegetable section is mostly packaged salad. It is a problem that goes beyond convenience.

A study by the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences at St. Michael's Hospital in 2007 found that areas without food stores tend to have higher rates of diabetes.

"We identified large sections of the city with lower access to stores selling fresh fruits and vegetables, which are an essential part of a healthy diet," the study found.

"These areas tended to be located north of the downtown core. We found that such neighbourhoods in the northwest and east had both high rates of diabetes and poorer access to stores selling fresh produce."

Rev. Helena-Rose Houldcroft also sees the impact first-hand from her vantage point at the Flemingdon Park Ministry, which has close ties to the Flemingdon Food Bank.

"I'm convinced that the use of our food bank has gone up because Food Basics moved out," she says.

"I don't think we'd have as many people using the food bank if we had easier access to well-priced food."

Weather is a factor for those without cars, she says: "As soon as winter hits, and the snow comes – and the clearing is just terrible – it's hard for people to do anything."

The plaza is said to be expanding and getting a new food store. A steel skeleton is rising next door to the existing building.

Albert Dai, director of the company that owns the plaza, says it will be a substantial store that will sell fresh fruit and vegetables.

"We would like to have a supermarket, but it takes time to get everything in place," he said.

Dai wouldn't say who the operator of the new store will be.

Flemingdon's issues don't end with the lack of a supermarket.

Houldcroft notes there's no bank branch in the plaza, either. One closed down several years ago, and she says it was a struggle to persuade the bank to install a bank machine to replace it.

There is, however, a payday loan outlet.

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